Steven R. Leonard is a Denver native who has finished the first of three humorous memoirs detailing his adventures growing up poor in a large (he's the oldest of nine children) middle class family in the 1970's.
He details the hardship of fighting his siblings for second helpings of meatless spaghetti (or as they call it in Italy: pasta) at the dinner table, and arguing about whose turn it was to play with the Etch a Sketch.

The Easter Duckling That Couldn’t Swim

Chapter 6

When Mom Ordered Me to Hit Her in the Head with a Shovel to Scare a Bee

The true story about my manic mother ordering me to hit her over the head with a shovel to scare a bee when I was eight years old.